Phillips 66 to Pay $8 Million Gets Prosecution Deferred No Monitor No Finding of Guilt No Corporate Probation No Press Release

What if the federal government settles a major corporate crime case with a lenient deferred prosecution agreement but doesn’t alert the press and the public about it?

In the case of Phillips 66, the Justice Department put out a press release in November 2024 announcing a criminal indictment of the company. The criminal trial was scheduled to begin last month in Los Angeles. But when the case was settled in January 2026, there was no press release announcing the settlement.

The result of no press release announcing the settlement?

No adverse publicity.

In November 2024, a federal grand jury in Los Angeles returned a six-count indictment charging Phillips 66 with violating the Clean Water Act by illegally discharging hundreds of thousands of gallons of industrial wastewater from its Carson oil refinery into the Los Angeles County sewer system then failing to report the violations to authorities.

At the time, the Justice Department put out the press release announcing that “if convicted of all charges, Phillips 66 would face a statutory maximum sentence of five years’ probation on each count and up to $2.4 million in fines.”

But there was no criminal prosecution, no finding of guilt and no corporate probation. 

Instead, Phillips 66 agreed to enter into a three-year deferred prosecution agreement and pay $8 million.

However, if Phillips 66 had been convicted, there would have been a finding of guilt and five years of corporate probation. Never mind the fine. That’s chickenfeed to a company the size of Phillips 66. 

A finding of guilt and five years of probation and the reputational damage they carry with them – that is what major corporations like Phillips 66 want to avoid.

Phillips 66 would rather be known as the sponsor of the Big 12 Men’s and Women’s Basketball Championships and of the USA Swimming National Championships — not as a convicted corporation with a probation officer. 

In this case, Phillips 66 avoided a criminal trial and corporate probation. Under the lenient settlement, no monitor was appointed. And we couldn’t find any major news outlet that reported on the lenient deferred prosecution agreement and $8 million fine.

Even this publication, Corporate Crime Reporter, which covers corporate crime week in and week out, did not learn about the settlement until two days ago — fully two months after the settlement was signed — when Rick Claypool of Public Citizen stumbled across it in his research and alerted us.

“The $8 million fine sounds like a lot, but it’s less than one percent of Phillips 66’s $4.4 billion in earnings last year alone,” Claypool told Corporate Crime Reporter.

“This further confirms that big fines alone are not enough to deter corporate crime,” Claypool said. “What corporations truly fear is the credible threat of criminal prosecution and the accountability that comes from a public trial and, if convicted, probation. With this leniency deal, Trump’s Department of Justice is sending the message that corporate lawbreakers have little to fear.”

“This case is now among the cases against more than 160 alleged corporate lawbreakers that the Trump administration inherited from the Biden administration and subsequently canceled, according to Public Citizen’s Corporate Enforcement Tracker.”

Phil Mattera, the manager of Violation Tracker, one of the best public online corporate crime databases, also didn’t know about the Phillips 66 settlement until this week.

“We were unaware of this deferred prosecution agreement,” Mattera told Corporate Crime Reporter. “We monitor Department of Justice press releases closely and can confirm there was no announcement, either by the US Attorneys Office in Los Angeles or Main Justice. Thanks for bringing this to my attention. We will now add the case to the Violation Tracker database.”

Mattera says that in his experience, it’s rare to have a major corporate crime settlement not announced with a Justice Department press release.

A spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney in Los Angeles did not return calls seeking comment.

Ariel Neuman, a partner at Bird Marella in Los Angeles and the attorney for Phillips 66 in the case, did not return calls seeking comments.

We asked both — was there an agreement between the Justice Department and Phillips 66 not to put out a press release? 

No comment.

In November 2024, federal officials alleged that for two-and-a-half hours on the early morning of November 24, 2020, Phillips’ Carson refinery discharged to the Los Angeles County Sanitation Districts (LACSD) – which manages the county’s sewer system – industrial wastewater containing a concentration of oil and grease more than 300 times the concentration allowed in its permit. 

Phillips 66 failed to inform LACSD of its non-compliant industrial wastewater discharge.

The city estimated that the Phillips 66 facility in Carson discharged approximately 310,000 gallons of non-compliant industrial wastewater, which contained approximately 64,000 pounds of oil and grease, into the city’s sewer system. 

The company’s industrial wastewater pretreatment system process controls and practices were inadequate to prevent or quickly address the non-compliant discharge, federal officials alleged.

In December 2020, LACSD issued Phillips multiple notices of violations for discharging the industrial wastewater containing an excessive concentration of oil and grease, and failing to notify LACSD about the discharge, which adversely affected an LACSD facility. 

The following month, a Phillips manager wrote to LACSD, acknowledged its non-compliant industrial wastewater discharge, and noted that the company would “retrain operations personnel” on such situations and the procedure to notify LACSD when it happens.

During the evening hours of February 8, 2021, Phillips’ Carson refinery – for approximately five-and-a-half hours – discharged approximately 480,000 gallons of non-compliant industrial wastewater, which contained at least 33,700 pounds of oil and grease, to LACSD’s sewer system.

In March 2021, LACSD – the month following the incident – issued notices of violations to Phillips for discharging industrial wastewater which adversely affected an LACSD facility and for its failure to notify the LACSD about said wastewater discharge. 

Again, a Phillips manager at its Carson facility wrote to LACSD and acknowledged the non-compliant industrial wastewater discharge and the company’s failure to notify authorities of the discharge.